The present invention relates generally to the field of database management and data manipulation for large quantities of data elements. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing a virtual item context for data elements in a deep data structure.
Large numbers of data elements may be created where each data element represents a discrete item, concept, class of items, etc. The data elements may be associated with a plurality of data element fields. The data elements and data element fields may have been created over time, by a different set of users, represent a wide variety of objects, etc. such that a variety of structures may be associated with the data element and/or the data element fields.
The large number of data items may be organized within a deep item structure. The data elements may be stored in structures that are organized hierarchically, according to relationships, etc. In a data structure of significant size, actual data may be found several layers deep within the structure. The structure may include fields that are simple values, simple or deep structures, and/or tables of simple or deep structures.
Performance is always an issue when working with mass data. More specifically, updating fields of items, each represented by a deep structure, requires a relatively large amount of processing time. The large amount of processing time can negatively affect mass data processing.
Several issues arise when working on mass data organized into a deep item structure. Navigating and accessing structure fields is particularly processor intensive when the items are house within these structures. The intensive processing is required even though only a subset of the fields may actually required for processing.
Further, when working with deep structures in mass data processing, an XPath of a field cannot always be used in order to identify a field because the length of such a path is potentially infinite. An XPath is a concatenation of the field name and any parent field names starting at a root field continuing to the field identified by the XPath.
What is needed is a system and method for providing working access to item field subsets within a deep mass data structure. What is further needed is such a system and method configured to configured to allow entry of new values into the item field subsets and yet avoid utilization of a write-back operation to reduce processing overhead associated with the data element mass processing.